Anand Utsav – A festival of Joy 2017

PYSSUM, a voluntary organization dedicated in the name of the world famous author of spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi” Paramahansa Yogananda, is working selflessly for welfare of the Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. In its 13th year, PYSSUM takes care of Intellectually Challenged children and adults through its Child Development Centre and Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre in Lucknow.

PYSSUM celebrated its 12th foundation year, Anand Utsav – A Festival of Joy, at Gandhi Bhavan with 11 other special schools of Lucknow and Kanpur, namely Samarpan, Dosti, Jyoti Special, Prerna, Touch Special Care, Navdeep, Chetna, Asha Jyoti, ASHA, Saksham and Amrita. Anand Utsav provides a platform to display their talents in ‘Performing Arts and Sports’ for the special need individuals. The Yogananda Running Trophy was reinstalled for the competition by Sri Anil Kr Mittal, Chairman, Yogoda Satsanga Dhyan Kendra in presence of Sri R N Arora, the Chairman of PYSSUM Board This year was dedicated to the performing arts and around 144 children as well as adults with special needs performed in front of an audience of 500 people.

The theme of the Utsav this year was “Yoga and World Peace” and people with special needs these children performed beautifully displaying tremendous confidence. The competition for the running trophy was judged by Ms. Mehnaz Akhtar, a designer from York University, Canada, Dr Anjum Islam, Associate Professor of English at Shashi Bhushan Degree College and Ms. Veena Rana, a social activities working for women.

Well known media activist Sri Kabir accepted that the cause of people with Intellectual Disabilities is not in society’s agenda. We work for women, children, politics corruption and education but this area is completely lost. We came here but deeply inspired by their performance and confidence.

Appreciating the efforts of PYSSUM, the Chief Guest, Sri Aditya Kumar, the Managing Director of Rubics Rostrum said that in the world of competition and corporate goals, Pyssum has focused on an extremely sensitive area, which not only needs to be handled carefully but must be accepted by the society with open arms. The Guest of Honour, Sri Anil Kr Mittal, Chairman, Yogoda Satsanga Dhyan Kendra, Lucknow mentioned that Yogananda Ji’s one of the prime interests was right education for our children and PYSSUM has gone a step ahead by working in the field of special education, a most neglected area of our society and congratulated all the participants of the Utsav.